Tumblr was the last stronghold for porn lovers as it was a playground for users to access all the adult content they desired depending on their kink. Now, as per a blog post by CEO Jeff D’Onofrio, Tumblr will no longer allow users to post adult content as of December 17 2018. This decision was made shortly after it had been pulled from the Apple App Store due to reports stating that child pornography had been found on the site.
Jeff D’Onforio starts off by saying, “Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr. We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfil our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change. Some of that change began with fostering more constructive dialogue among our community members. Today, we’re taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions).”
Jeff D’Onforio states that posts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr, and they have updated their Community Guidelines to reflect this policy change. He goes on to add, “We recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality, and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance.”
Commenting on the child pornographic posts he states, “Let’s first be unequivocal about something that should not be confused with today’s policy change: posting anything that is harmful to minors, including child pornography, is abhorrent and has no place in our community. We’ve always had and always will have a zero tolerance policy for this type of content. To this end, we continuously invest in the enforcement of this policy, including industry-standard machine monitoring, a growing team of human moderators, and user tools that make it easy to report abuse.”
The Tumblr CEO goes on to cite the reasons for taking such a step by stating that it is their continued aspiration that Tumblr be a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community. He says that as Tumblr continues to grow and evolve, their understanding of their impact on the world becomes clearer and they have a responsibility to consider that impact across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets.
He adds, “Bottom line: There is no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.”
So what’s next for Tumblr? Starting from December 17, Tumblr will be enforcing this new policy. Community members with content that is no longer permitted on Tumblr will get a heads up in advance and steps they can take to appeal or preserve their content outside the community if they so choose.
Speaking on the filtering of this adult content D’Onforio states, “Filtering this type of content versus say, a political protest with nudity or the statue of David, is not simple at scale. We’re relying on automated tools to identify adult content and humans to help train and keep our systems in check. We know there will be mistakes, but we’ve done our best to create and enforce a policy that acknowledges the breadth of expression we see in the community.”
He ends by stating, “Our actions are out of love and hope for our community. We won’t always get this right, especially in the beginning, but we are determined to make your experience a positive one.”
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